


Once Shaven, Twice Shy

by tielan



Category: Pacific Rim (2013)
Genre: F/M, Facial Shaving, Love, Oral Sex, Smut, shaving/depilation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-15
Updated: 2013-10-16
Packaged: 2017-12-29 11:22:12
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,499
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1004840
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tielan/pseuds/tielan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“You’ve done this before?”</p><p>“Sometimes. For <i>sensei</i> – Tamsin taught me how, and I did it for Herc once.” At his noise of surprise, Mako looks up. She probably doesn’t intend for it to come off coy, but Raleigh’s been away from her for nearly two weeks, and he’s <i>hungry.</i> “Would you like me to wait while you check that he is not traumatised from the experience?”</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> [Kink Bingo 2013](http://tielan.dreamwidth.org/665651.html): shaving/depilation.
> 
> Also for the [PR-a-thon](http://pr-a-thon.tumblr.com/) over on tumblr. (#crew g-danger)

Mako is not sure what to think when Raleigh comes back from Anchorage with a beard.

“I couldn’t be bothered,” he admits that night when Mako runs her hand across the golden-blond strands – rather longer than the stubble he wakes up with, a little soft and a little itchy. “Of course,” he adds as he kisses her palm, “I didn’t have any inducement to stay clean-shaven, either.”

Mako tilts her head this way and that, trying to decide if she likes it or not.

“You look very...European. Like a Nordic god.”

“Yeah?” His free hand wanders along her skin, tracing delicate patterns of heat into her flesh as he leans over and their lips touch, light and lingering. “A Nordic sex god, of course.”

Mako laughs as she trails the back of her fingers down his cheek. “If you like.”

“You don’t like it?”

“I do not mind it.”

“I was hoping for a more ringing endorsement.” Propped up on one elbow, his other hand winds into her fingers and he nibbles her knuckles. “I guess it can come off. In the morning.”

“After the Nordic sex god has spent the night in my bed?”

“That’s the plan.”

Her breath catches a little as he unlaces their hands, and briefly covers her breast with his hand before his fingers glide lower. His gaze follows his touch, his mouth curving as she makes a little mewling noise when he slides one finger through her cleft. The untrammelled heat in his eyes is intoxicating as he licks his lips. “May I?”

Mako spreads her legs in answer.

The beard tickles more than it rasps as he nuzzles her inner thighs, teasing.

Amidst the panting pleasure of his tongue and lips and teeth, Mako supposes she doesn’t mind the beard _that_ much.

* * *

Raleigh doesn’t know quite what Mako’s doing with the mug and the brush and the soap, but she seems to, so he presses the hot damp facecloth she gave him to his throat and cheeks and just watches.

“You’ve done this before?”

“Sometimes. For _sensei_ – Tamsin taught me how, and I did it for Herc once.” At his noise of surprise, Mako looks up. She probably doesn’t intend for it to come off coy, but Raleigh’s been away from her for nearly two weeks, and he’s _hungry_. Even after last night and this morning. “Would you like me to wait while you check that he is not traumatised from the experience?”

He grins, and tosses the facecloth aside, resting his hands on the edge of the sink, cool porcelain beneath his palms. “I trust you. Do your worst.”

Her ‘worst’ is to swipe the tip of his nose with the brush, leaving a ticklish and cool dob of cream there before she starts brushing the soap across his cheeks and jaw and chin and throat. The soft and ticklish stroke makes him smile – with his mouth shut so the soap doesn’t get in. She studies her work, then puts the mug and brush down in the sink, and reaches for the razor she sharpened before.

Her fingertips adjust the angle of his face, and she presses her hip up against his legs for better stability.

Then she begins.

The first swipe is careful. Her mouth is pursed in concentration, and her eyes lift to his to check if the contact was okay. He shrugs. “Not dead yet.”

Her smile is like sunrise and glory, and it stays on her lips as she draws the razor down his cheek again. And again, along his jaw, and across his chin. She wipes the blade on a towel over her arm with neat, crisp movements, and goes back in again.

Her smile fades as she works, lost in the concentration that rebuilt and refurbished a Mark III Jaeger, in the focus that made her a Ranger, that kept her on point in the years when she wasn’t allowed into the fight.

Raleigh’s smile fades as the slow, gentle strokes ratchet desire in his gut, heat tugging in his balls as Mako works on him, with only an eyebrow when her hip brushes by his erection as she switches sides. “Sharp things near your throat?”

Honesty compels him. “Everything’s a trigger when it’s you, Mako.”

That brings a blush to her cheeks which he enjoys as she starts on the other side of his face. If he slides his finger in under the wrap she’s wearing, will she be already wet?

“Raleigh!” Mako holds up the razor, her expression wide-eyed and warning. “I have sharp things!”

Raleigh licks the tips of his fingers and tastes Mako’s readiness, musky and slick. “I just need something to tide me over.”

Her cheeks and forehead and the tip of her ear and the column of her throat are hotly pink now, and he nearly leans in to bite her earlobe. Then she presses the curve of her hip against his groin and he grabs for the sink again. “Good things come to those who _wait_ , Mr. Becket.”

“I’ve waited two weeks.”

“Then you can wait fifteen minutes more.”

“You think so?”

“I know so.”

Raleigh holds still after that. Partly because he doesn’t want his throat cut, partly because she wants him to stay still, partly because he likes the ache.

But her fingertips positioning his head is torture and the slow stroke of the blade down his throat is a twist in his balls. He watches her face, the way her mouth purses and her nose wrinkles, the intensity of her gaze and the way her brows draw down. He thinks of all the things he’s going to do to her once this shave is done, and how he might never shave with a safety razor again if he can persuade Mako to do him like this every morning.

By the time she steps away to rinse off the razor and run the facecloth back under the hot water, Raleigh’s close to begging. As it is, he catches the tie of her wrap and pulls so the bow comes undone and the fabric slides from her shoulders to hang by the sleeves gathering at her elbows.

“What happened to waiting?”

“I waited.” He slides his arms around her waist, turning her towards him. “I’ll take my good things _now_ , please, Mako.”

Mako grins as she holds up the hot towel. Raleigh grins as he rubs his cheek and his mouth and his nose and jaw and throat into her hands – then pushes past her hands to seize her lips with his own.

His cheeks feel…naked. Exposed and sensitive as she moves her mouth across his, sliding her tongue across his lips, nibbling at his jaw before she makes a little noise and splutters and draws back.

“What?”

“Soap,” she says, wiping the offending spot with the cooling washcloth.

“Blame the barber.” But Raleigh stands still for her to finish cleaning him off – even when she flicks his nose with a wet corner. However the instant the cloth is disposed of, he moves her backwards until she’s up against the bathroom door. Her breasts rise and fall with the hitch of her breath as she watches him contemplating her.

Her mouth curves as he bends to kiss her, deep and drowning and aching and hungry. Raleigh rubs his cheek against her throat and hears her hum as he begins to kiss and bite and lick and rub his way down her body. He’s a little too hot right now, and the best way to cool off is to bring Mako up to speed with him. And seeing as his cheeks are smooth now and his skin is still sensitive from the shave…

“So,” she says, her voice wavering a little, “not a very good barber, then?”

“Oh,” Raleigh grins up at her as his hands encourage her to spread her legs a little wider. “She was _very_ good, actually.”

“Really?”

“Yeah.” Kneeling now, Raleigh breathes in the wet scent of her, thumbs parting her flesh as Mako exhales unsteadily. “And she’s not bad at shaving either.”


	2. Chapter 2

Herc glances up as Raleigh enters the office and snorts, his fingers rubbing his own rough bristle. “Letting down the side, mate?”

“Not giving Mako any cause to complain.”

“Considering you’re two hours late, if Mako’s complaining, you’re doing something wrong.”

Raleigh grins at the nudge – friendly, not leering – then pauses, remembering something Mako said in the bathroom while doing her preparations. “She said she shaved _you_ once.”

He doesn’t mean to sound accusing, but the older man looks up sharply, blue eyes wary as his cheeks grow ruddy. His reaction answers everything that Raleigh doesn’t need to ask, and in spite of what Raleigh knows about Herc Hansen – that the man would never have betrayed Pentecost’s faith by moving on Mako – he finds himself tensing.

After a moment, Herc looks away, shoulders dropping with a rueful sigh. “Yeah, well, why do you think it was only the once?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So just a little more about "The Noodle Incident" for koalathebear, who loves her Herc/Mako. (Sorry, darls, this is about as much as you're going to get from me!)


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